Tuesday, 16 June 2015

(762) The Vampires of Venice

This is the second script from Toby Whithouse who previously wrote the 2006 story School Reunion. This is a story with Vampire in the title and normally this would bore me because I just find vampires to be very dull in terms of storytelling. The end of the previous episode saw Amy trying to know THE Doctor a bit better than was natural on a Saturday evening. This story sees the return of Rory and the introduction of him as a companion. His opening scene comes just before the title sequence and ends with the Doctor bursting out of a cake. The Doctor’s plan to stop Amy from jumping on him is to bring Rory along and take them to Venice in 1580.

It’s fun to see Rory installed into the story as when he appeared in The Eleventh Hour he was a bit of a one dimension but loveable character. Here he develops a slight distrust of the Doctor and Amy’s relationship. The best bit for Rory came when he points out to the Doctor that everyone tries to impress the Doctor and I couldn’t help but think that Rory doesn’t even know half the story.
This story was filmed in Trogir in Croatia and one of the things that I really like about this episode is that it looks stunning. It’s one of the things that works in the episode’s favour. It’s better than the locations used in The Fires of Pompeii which I thought couldn’t be topped but this managed it. I think the locations used in Vincent and the Doctor are just a good but this is the first time in the series that the locations have almost stolen the show.

Helen McCrory (currently in Peaky Blinders) plays Rosanna who is quite the mummy’s boy to Francesco who is played by Alex Price. There is a strange thing going on with this relationship and it’s is this that I quite like about their performances.
I like the moment when the Doctor shows his library card to the vampires and it’s got a picture of the first Doctor. That’s not the first nod that the series will make to the early Doctor’s and it’s something that is subtle but noticeable enough to be enjoyed. This was another good performance from Matt Smith and there were some good comedy moments and Smith does these just as well as Tennant did his.

The twist in the story comes with the fact that Francesco and Rosanna aren’t actually vampires but are from the planet Saturnyne who have Vampire like tendencies. The scene between Rosanna and the Doctor was a nice one because Rosanna is an effective villain and we learn that they were running from the silence thus continuing the story arc. At the very end there was silence and its quite an eerie silence considering that the end of the episode it should be jolly and happy.
It was a good episode which had some lovely locations and also had a good plot. I always thought that School Reunion was more nostalgia than Doctor Who, so it was nice to see what Toby Whithouse could do and I am pleased to say that I liked what I saw. I

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